Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

Myanmar is a country where a high percentage of the population depends on agriculture for their income. In the South, rainfall is abundant during the monsoon season and rice is easily grown. However, in the central region, and especially the ominously-named "Dry Zone", water is a much scarcer commodity. The monsoon rains are much less prevalent here and there is a high demand for water pumps for irrigation. Usually the pumping set-up is a large stationary diesel engine with a belt drive to a crude water pump. Although noisy and smoky, these units are still expensive for the average farmer and the engine usually needs constant maintenance.

Seya Paul (*), a good friend of Solar Roots and a tireless activist for justice and sustainable living, operates a demonstration organic farm in Pyin Oo Lwin. He has often asked me about the possibility of irrigating his farm using solar power, but I wasn't able to find 12V DC pumps on the local market. Of course, I could import solar pumps from Europe at great cost, but this is not a viable solution for the Myanmar farmers. My general philosophy is to buy what is available locally, even if the quality is not high, because at least spare parts are available and in time I hope to find Myanmar importers who are willing to import higher quality solar pumps from China. After some searching, I found two 12V DC pumps and tested them for efficiency and durability. Whereas the slick and costly European solar pumps can run directly from the solar panels, theses cheap Chinese pumps ran very, very hot when connected that way. The solar power needed to be "conditioned", that is, smoothed out, to be closer to the operating range of the pump. The answer was to put a battery into the system, that way, the PV panel is always charging the battery and the battery is always supplying regulated power to the pump.

Previously, Seya Paul had been using an old diesel engine and belt-driven pump that created a foul and noxious smoke storm whenever it was started up. His water source is a hand-dug well about 20ft deep and his land rises an additional 20ft at the high end. This was quite a challenge for our little solar pump. However, by putting the solar panel on a tracker, (a frame on a pole), we are able to follow the sun in it's path across the sky and get the maximum output from the panel. Seya Paul reckons that the solar pump will be able to handle most of his irrigation for most of the year - this is a huge leap forward. Now, the next step is to locate a manufacturer of good quality solar pumps in China and to find a Myanmar business to import them - wish me luck!

(*) Seya Paul is an invented name to protect the identity of this recipeint.

Working again with Alein Ein, the Myanmar NGO that helps communities recover from the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, Solar Roots went to a community in the north west of the Ayerwaddy Delta, near Pathein. This was a village called Kandaw and the population belongs to the Pwo Karen group. Although not badly damaged during Nargis, the people of Kandaw stand out as having started one of the most successful savings group in the Delta area. What is a "savings group"? Well, we've all heard of the very popular micro lending schemes, where villagers can borrow small amounts of money at low rates of interest to start a small enterprise. However, in the usual model, this money comes from outside the community and the interest generated goes back to the big city, where the bank is located. Alein Ein have pioneered a new model where the community sets up a savings group and members contribute a small amount each month. But with 100 members, as in Kandaw, the saved amount accumulates quickly, and is soon ready to be lent out to a group member. Alein Ein has used this savings group concept to great effect in fostering community building in the areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

The villagers of Kandaw are rice farmers and proud of the Pwo Karen culture and language. They even have a few motorbikes in the village - but almost no-one had electric lights or phone charging capacity. Alein Ein invited us to come to the village to give a 2-day solar training and I saw this as an ideal opportunity to test out some of the new small solar home systems. Previously, we had introduced systems where the recipient had an LED light and a battery, but had to take the battery to a central charging station twice a week. The new systems we introduced at Kandaw are self contained units which include 2 LED lights, a USB phone charging port, a charge controller, a battery and a solar panel, all designed to work together. One model, from China, cost around $36 and another, larger system, built in Myanmar, cost $55. We brought six of the Chinese and four of the Myanmar systems. I like to support local enterprises where I can and I suspect that the Myanmar system will be more popular, as it is more powerful and can be repaired locally.

I had two volunteers from UC Berkeley with me and the villagers treated us all like loyalty. We were given meat at every meal, which I am sure the villagers only eat occasionally, when no guests are around. The Pwo Karen are Buddhist, in contrast to their cousins, the Sgaw Karen who live in the mountains near the Thai border and are Christian. To a greater degree, the Pwo Karen have been able to hold on to their culture and language, since they have been less affected by outside influences. We were treated to a two hour presentation of their traditional dances, with all the young folk dressed up in traditional costumes. We were also presented with Karen tunics for MIchael and myself and a dress for Lisa. It was humbling to be treated so well by people who have so little.

I did my usual  2-day solar training, explaining the basics of photovoltaics and emphasizing the need to carefully manage the usage of the system during the rainy season, when the available sunlight is much reduced. In point of fact, it was rainy season when we were there - extremely hot with violent daily rainstorms. I will be very interested to revisit Kandaw, to check up on the performance of these solar home systems and see if they really hold up in the rigors of the tropical climate. It will be a delight to check in again with the good friends we made during our first visit to the good folks of Kandaw.

Please let me know if you like the work that Solar Roots is doing. Your feedback and continued support is what makes this work possible. Thank you, Bruce.